Sidney Crosby being held out for next two games ... mumps suspected?

To mumps or not to mumps? That is the question regarding Sidney Crosby.

So all that nonsense about his swollen face, him being sick Thursday, his career-worst goal slump, his coach doing a denial on the mumps that wasn't a denial. 

Stop the presses ...

Suddenly some "further test results" that were not referenced at all in the nuttiness earlier, magically appeared out of nowhere, and Crosby is out for the next two games ... as a precaution.

Here is the meat of the release from the Pittsburgh Penguins:

Sidney Crosby will be held out of the Pittsburgh Penguins' next two games as a precautionary measure, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said today. 

Crosby has not been feeling well. Medical specialists made the recommendation after further test results came back today.

"There is no indication at this time that this is the mumps, but we are going to hold him out as a precaution," Rutherford said. "We'll have additional test results in a few days."

Penguins team doctors haven't exactly had their finest moments with Crosby -- remember that whole concussion situation where he was allowed to play afterwards, which severely altered his career?

And this staff is a new group, since the ones who cleared his concussion were replaced two years ago.

Regardless, if there wasn't an indication that it's the mumps, what's the precaution? Also, if you noticed a giant bulge on the right side of his face, why make him available to talk to reporters? Also, why did nobody mention these "further test results" earlier?

The main problems here -- and there are a lot of minor detail issues -- again falls on lack of injury transparency, and hockey players' desire to play through anything. We saw it Thursday night when Jonathan Toews clearly suffered a head or neck injury, but played on before coming out of Chicago's win over Boston.

Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune justly took the Blackhawks to task on this matter Friday afternoon. 

At what point do teams and players need to feel the urge to stop hiding problems, and state them as they are? The NFL has injury reports. Why are NHL players and teams so secretive with everything regarding such issues?

Crosby looked like a chipmunk. The mumps are an issue, but yet he practiced and met with the media? And then nobody took accountability on the obvious questions about this virus, which only infected 584 known patients in the United States last year until way later in the day.

Did the Penguins just want to pump up 84 Lumber all day with that screen shot?

This isn't the worst thing in the world -- or in hockey for that matter. There are other problems going on -- like Phil Kessel's holiday outfit. 

But this is situation didn't need to be this bad, and could have been stopped before it spiraled.

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